Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis will know that I recently purchased an ASP FT-160 twin cylinder 4 stroke engine. Well as this addiction goes, and it is an addiction, I stumbled across another really sweet deal on a twin cylinder engine. Now I have had 3 twins prior to the ASP and they were Saito FA-80T and two Saito FA-90T engines. I flew them both in airplanes, a scratch built Cloud Dancer 60 and a Value Hobby Easy Stik 60. Both engines flew these airplanes very well and I had a ton of fun with them. And then for some still unknown reason, I sold them. Initially I was ok with this decision but as time passed I began to really regret doing this.

That brings me to the latest twin I purchased, a Saito FA-100T. Well at least now I have had three different Saito twins displacements. This one is a real beauty too! I really hope I don't get to a point where I part with either this or the ASP because they are both fantastic! Check out the last video that I made of this engine. It is now oiled up and back in the box. I am working on building an airplane and I do not need further distractions.... LOL

So I was coerced into buying this engine. No, not really, but after seeing and corresponding with a great fellow and YouTube subscriber in Slovenia I decided to get one. Sure, I had to sell a few engines to offset the cost, but hey they are just things. So after selling about 5-6 engines I felt much better about this purchase.

The amazing thing was I ordered it on a Friday from Hobby King Hong Kong warehouse and it was at my door step on Tuesday the following week!!! I have ordered things from HK before and didn't get them for nearly a month so I was floored when this arrived on Tuesday. Anyway, it is absolutely beautiful! I have run it three times now but only two of those videos are linked here.

I am still tweaking the carb a bit but it is better than in the first video. Tweaking and running it is ALL of the fun as well.

I came upon a very nice Enya R120-4C engine this week. I was quite surpised when a fellow RCG member, Chris, contacted me last weekend asking if I was interested in an engine. He told me what he had, sent me some pictures, then the negotiations began. One week later it is in my possession and I could not be happier with it.

The Enya R120-4C is the more powerful of the 2 Enya 120 sized 4 stroke engines. it was introduced to the market in 1984 is still has considerable parts support and following. I have wanted an Enya 120 for some time, but the R120 was what I really wanted. A big thank you to Chris for contacting me on this!

It arrived and I did an initial external inspection and determined that it was in good enough shape for a run.

I am about to build an airplane that was featured in the December 1987 issue of RCModeler magazine. This airplane, the Super Sportster 90/120, went on to become a kit distributed by Great Planes. Now back in 1988, when I entered the hobby, I built several SS 40 kits. I actually built nearly all of the Great Planes kits offered during that time period. I have never had the 90/120 and I am quite excited to build the version before it was kitted by GP.

I found the plans on http://www.outerzone.co.uk/ and a great friend of mine Rob Reynolds has a laser cutter and offers short kits for many airplanes to include this one. I have received this short kit from Rob and I am now in the engine selection process. I still have to get all remaining wood for the build, but now is a good time to decide on an engine.

Man I have been getting really lucky of late. Early Monday morning I just arrived at work and while drinking my coffee I took a quick look at eBay. I stumbled upon something that nearly had me spitting coffee all over the place! A Saito FA-40S engine. This was not on auction, it was listed as a Buy It Now and only had 3 hours left. The list price was $75 and I offered something a bit less hoping I had time to get a response before someone came along and paid full price.

Well lucky me my offer was accepted and payment made. Now the ad stated and I quote," This is a Saito .40 SPECIAL engine that runs fine. It is an older engine and a very sought after runner.". To me this statement implies that the engine turns over and has compression.

Well to my surprise the engine arrived on Thursday and it looked just as it did in the ad. Wait a second.... it is locked up! The crankshaft does not turn over at all! Oh crap, I think. What have I done now? I did not ask ANY questions about this engine due to the rare nature of it and the time frame left on the listing, so I took a chance. Anyone that buys from eBay knows that there is considerable risk involved with many purchases. I chose to take this risk and it looks like it might have bitten me, or did it? Granted if the piston ring is broken I am screwed, but if it is just locked up due to sitting for a long while, it could just need heat, oil and new bearings.

I picked up this very nice early 1990's vintage 2 stroke engine right here on RCG. It was priced extremely favorably so I figured that I could not go wrong. I favor engines from the 80's-90's primarily anyway so the age of this engine was right up my alley.

The pictures on the ad made it look quite new and nearly unused. I waited eagerly for it to arrive and when it did I was not let down. This thing really looked like it had been run one time and then put back into its box and forgotten.

It looked so good that I did not do my customary Look Inside for all used engines. Instead I decided a Box to the Bench was in order. As with those things don't always work out as expected. Take a look at the video to see more on how this turns out.

These are the two largest 2 stroke engines I currently have. One is a Thunder Tiger 120 and the other a recent acquisition an ASP 91 ABC. The former has yet another video posted below. The story of the ASP 91 will be revealed in a post in the coming weeks.

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I have a particular affinity for engines manufactured in the 80's-90's. So following in that, today I present the HP 20 Gold Cup engine. The date that this engine hit the market is a bit hard to determine. The other Gold Cup reviews of the 40 and 61 sized engine were from the late 70's; and the was no mention of a 20 size in those articles. I am left to assume that this was released in the early 80's.

When I saw this engine on eBay I was immediately intrigued with it. I had owned a 40 Gold Cup some years ago and it was a fine engine. I have never had the 20 unit.

The images in the ad looked good and the engine looked to be a low time specimen. The seller was unsure if it was new and never run and for the asking price, I couldn't resist. I did manage to get it for less than the asking price too.

It came as complete as I could have asked for. Box, manual, warranty certificate, hex wrench, and muffler. After a quick look inside, see video, I determined that this was indeed a NIB engine. What a score for under $50!

I just so happen to have two old school heavy weights from the late 80's-early 90's in my possession. The first is from 1989, the OS FS-120E Surpass and the second is from about the same time period, the Saito FA-120S DP.

The latter is my personal engine and the former is a good friend of mines. Both have been overhauled with new bearings, timing set, and TLC provided. The OS could be for sale, but Rob might decide he wants to keep it. The Saito, will not be sold. But that isn't the purpose of this post.

I thought head to head runs under the same circumstances would be a fun thing to do today. Both were swinging the same Master Airscrew 15x8 prop, drinking the same brew Morgan's 5% Omega with castor added, and firing with an OS F glow plug. Both engines had been run prior to what is seen in the video, both tuned more or less perfectly.

As you can see below the Saito outweighs the Surpass by 2.2 ounces. The Saito comes in at 32.5 ounces and the OS is at 30.3 ounces. The video shows that the Saito out turns the OS as well; to the order of 750 RPM at WOT.

Figures
Saito Max 8670 RPM Min 2250 RPM
OS Max 7920 RPM Min 2550 RPM

Granted the low end RPM figures could be tuned to be lower but most folks aren't looking for how slowly an engine can swing a prop. The OS really could not be tweaked to provide any higher RPM, the next click of the needle resulted in a drop in RPM. The Saito, well I did not try to get more out of it.

When I saw this engine listed on eBay I knew I had to have it. The ad stated that it was new and the three pictures in the ad were not that clear. I sent a question attempting to confirm the condition. I got a response stating that the muffler was new, no carbon residue and no smell. I pulled the trigger as these are HARD to find, especially new. The price was $212 shipped.

Well when the engine arrived, it took all of 5 seconds to figure out that it was NOT new and never run. Holy hell! What have a done now? I asked. I made some videos, as I always do to document the condition. I sent a message to the seller explaining the condition issues and 3 days later I got a response. My request of a 50% refund for a non-new engine was granted. Oh, I forgot to mention, the engine was LOCKED up also. It would not turn over at all!

Well I was much happier knowing I just scored a Saito FA-120S DP for $112. I knew I could fix it and, I did. The end result was it just needed some cleanup and a new set of bearings.

Here is the video I made if it running today. It is a very nice $112 engine and one I will keep for many years.

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...but a serious MF. This is an engine sent to me by a friend along with many other engines. The intent was to clean up, play with, make videos and then sell them. Well I have made it through many of his engines, but this one is a bit special. It is a Thunder Tiger Pro 120 two stroke engine. Now when it arrived it looked quite new with little run time. The only issues was that it was very tight turning it over when a propeller was installed.

I tore this engine down, pulled the new bearings and gave it a thorough inspection. When I re-installed the bearings, I made a stupid mistake too. I 'assumed' that the front bearing was fully seated when flush with the front housing. This was how I installed the front bearing using my arbor press. The crankshaft felt great and smooth before the piston was re-installed. It still felt great afterward, but it was a different story when the propeller was attached and tightened down. Eventually I dis-assembled the engine again and found a perfectly sized socket that would fit the outer race. It certainly seated another .5mm-1mm after that using the press. Issue resolved, dumb mistake made, lesson learned.

Now to run this thing! That was and is the largest 2 stroke engine I have ever attempted to run. Honestly I wasn't sure it would fit in my PSP test stand, but, luckily for me, it did. Well run it did! It has been one of the most fun engine runs I have had in a long time! The thing is big, scary, and powerful! I...Continue Reading

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I bought this engine here for a mere $15 shipped. It was new, never run and without a muffler. I bought it as a piece to experiment with. It has proven to be much more resilient than I thought. See the full story in video.

I have a YouTube subscriber who has shown me some videos of a home brew fuel he makes with only Ethanol and castor oil. Where he lives in Germany pre-mixed glow fuel with nitromethane is quite expensive if even available. I have tossed around the idea of mixing my own fuel before, but never did because it really just isn't cost effective. I have a LHS that still stocks fuel at a decent price so why mix my own?

Well for an experiment I decided to mix some and try it out. This is the 'what if' scenario. What if all of my LHS closed the doors? What if I could not get pre-mixed glow fuel anymore? Well in this experiment I get an answer to the 'what if' question.

I went to Home Depot and bought a 1 quart can of Klean Strip Denatured alcohol. In addition I already have some Klotz BeNOL racing castor. I simply mixed 6.4oz of alcohol to 1.6oz of castor in a mason jar. I then just filled an 8oz fuel tank with this and selected two engines to run.

I choose my OS FS-30 Surpass and an OS 46 SF engine. I figured one 4 stroke and one 2 stroke would be a good starting point.

I bought this engine from eBay, paid a bit more than I should have, but hey I'm planning on keeping it so.... It looked pretty decent on the outside. it was missing a few items that added to the overall cost to me, prop washer, muffler, bearings, and the needle valve assembly needed to be replaced. Fortunately I had a replacement needle valve assembly on hand. I also ordered some gaskets, retaining nuts for the muffler and an O-ring.

Once I opened her up I saw how dirty the inside was! It took some time but I got it done and now she is a beautiful and fine running engine once again. See the story in video here.

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I have had my YouTube channel for about 2 years now. I started it when I was searching YouTube for videos of engines I wanted to run, or was just curious about. After some searching I really did not find a single channel that had a consistent format and a wide variety of engine videos. So I started making my own. https://www.youtube.com/user/dmrcflyr2

They started out pretty crude but I think I have gotten better at it over time. Now I have over 370 videos on my channel. These range from nearly 100 instructional videos covering topics such as:

- Disassembly of a 2 and 4 stroke engines.
- How to set the timing on 4 stroke engines.
- How to replace the bearings on engines.
- How to adjust the valve lash on 4 stroke engines
- Tuning and setup of both 2 and 4 stroke engines

I also have a section on "Box to the Bench" reviews. this is where I run an engine straight as it came to me from a seller. Now I assess the engine externally first to ensure it is in running condition. Then afterward I usually tear it down for inspection and cleaning.

That leads to my "A Look Inside" videos. Here I disassemble the engine to inspect the components, and I attempt to guess the amount of run time an engine has on it based on internal condition. Sometimes I have quite surprising finding too. Most often it leads to a bearing replacement. Once this section is complete I make a first run after reassembly video or a Performance Run. these generally are the...Continue Reading

Seeing as I have several 50 size 4 stroke engines, 4 to be exact, how about putting a couple more head to head? My last 50 size comparison was when I ran the Magnum XL52RFS vs the OS FS-48 Surpass.

This time I will put my newest acquisition, an HP 49 VT, against a rebuild project engine a Saito FA-50. I just finished re-assembling the Saito 50 and up next for it will be a performance run. So why not add another video of the HP running with it? Both will be running Morgan's 5% Omega with castor added for a total lube content of 20%. Both will be turning APC 11x6 propellers.

A friend of mine and an awesome member here, Balsaworkbench, was kind enough to send me 2 boxes of engines. Box 1 has arrived and box 2 will be here tomorrow.

Inside box #1 were a variety of engines but three in particular to be discussed here. They are an OS 10 FSR, an OS 10 FP, and an Enya 09 MK IV. I am excited about these engines as they will be the smallest engines I have ever run. I did A Look Inside the OS 10 FSR and the Enya 09(Just added link) to assess the condition of these engines. I did tear down the 10 FP also but I did not shoot a video of that.

With that said the engines are all cleaned up and ready to run. Fortunately Rob also sent three 7x4 propellers with these engines as I do not have props that size. This comparison will be done with these three engines running the 7x4 props. I have not decided which fuel I will be running but most likely it will be the Omega 5% with additional castor added.

Unfortunately this will not be taking place until next weekend as there is a low pressure system off the coast providing constant rain showers. This system is expected to hang around all week dropping tons of rain. So stay tuned for this next comparison.

Well every since I have been in the hobby dating back to 1988, I have been intrigued by the HP VT 4 stroke engines but have never owned one.......UNTIL NOW! Can you tell I'm excited?

The ad did not show a box nor was one mentioned so I wasn't expecting one, but it came in one! Now I have had an HP .40 2 stroke Gold Cup engine before, but never one of these. HP usually uses the same artwork design on their boxes with just a sticker denoting what is inside. Now looking at the review from 1983 on the VT-21 I don't think this engine is that old. It is an Austrian made engine and I am not sure what year MECOA took over this engine line, but the exhaust does not look like the ones from the initial release of these engines.

I do plan on keeping this engine, it isn't going to cycle through my collection regardless of how it runs. I hope to get a video of it running very soon too. I need to look at and read the manual I found on the MECOA site or see if I can find an original manual.

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dmrcflyr2

Engine man

About dmrcflyr2

Biography

I started in RC Airplanes in 1988 and have built and flown many, many planes. I took a 6 year hiatus from the hobby from 2006 to 2012 due to employment/financial reasons. I fly glow primarily 4-strokes.